My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E07 May the Best Pet Win: Difference between revisions

[[File:maythebestpetwin_5020.jpg|frame| "So, you all think you got what it takes to trope my episode, do ya? Well, we'll just see about that!" ]]

 

'''Fluttershy & Dash:''' ''[[Let's Duet|So a contest we will see]]!''<br />

'''Rainbow Dash:''' ''Who's the number one, greatest, perfectest pet''<br />

'''Rainbow Dash:''' ''And [[Title Drop|may the best pet win]]!'' }}

 

 

Rainbow Dash is [[All Just a Dream|awoken]] by her friends' pets from [[Nightmare Dreams|a crazy dream]] where she's attacked by a creepy chimera-like monster made up of… [[Crashing Dreams|her friends' pets]]. The other ponies arrive soon afterward, and Applejack explains that they're at the park for their weekly [[Added Alliterative Appeal|Pony Pet Play Date]]. Feeling a bit left out, Rainbow Dash admits she might want to have a pet someday, whereupon Fluttershy [[Genki Girl|enthusiastically drags Rainbow to her cottage]], prattling on about the wonderful animals available. Once there, Fluttershy and Rainbow [[Let's Duet|sing a jaunty tune]] about finding the perfect pet for Rainbow Dash, ending with her announcing a competition to do just that.

** And, for once, Rainbow Dash, in her prep-school outfit while posing with the owl.

* [[Affectionate Gesture to the Head]]: Rainbow Dash condescendingly does this to Twilight Sparkle when the latter makes a comment that "cool", "awesome", and "radical" are all the same thing.

* [[Art Evolution]]: Applejack's freckles no longer disappear as she runs.<ref>this happened in Season 1 due to animators screwing up when they created AJ's standard run cycle.</ref>

** Fluttershy pawing at the ground when nervous is nothing new, but the small clouds of dust she kicks up are.

* [[Bow Ties Are Cool]]: [[Memetic Mutation|Rainbow Dash always dresses in style.]]

* [[Brutal Honesty]]: By Applejack near the beginning:

'''Applejack:''' ''Exactly!'' }}

* [[Burning Rubber]]: Rainbow Dash does this at one point, leaving a trail of ''rainbow'' flames behind her.

** One of the outfits Rainbow Dash wears in the "Style Competition" includes Rarity's scarf from ''Dragonshy''.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: During the song.

'''Rainbow Dash:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Ya think?]] }}

* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Played straight as always with the ever-upset Opal, but averted with Fluttershy's "puddy tat," who is affectionate (although it still fails to impress Rainbow Dash).

'''Rarity:''' ...She's sorry. }}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Twilight mentioned that a pet needs "care and attention, love and affection." {{spoiler|Take a wild guess at what the tortoise showed towards Rainbow Dash to help him win.}}

* [[Comically Missing the Point]]:

** Many of Fluttershy's suggestions for Dash's new pet. Rainbow clearly states she wants a pet who can fly, yet three-quarters of Fluttershy's suggestions include animals like a bunny, a cat, an otter, and a ''seal''<ref>[[Informed Ability|But he totally caught ten feet of air after breaking the water that one time!]]</ref>.

** Also, Rainbow herself, invoked by Applejack and Twilight.

'''Twilight Sparkle:''' Yeah, like care and attention, love and affection! }}

* [[Cool Pet]]: The episode is about Rainbow Dash's attempt to find one of these.

* [[Empathy Pet]]: Rainbow Dash and Tank share a key element: Loyalty.

* [[Exact Words]]:

'''Pinkie Pie:''' You ''did''! You ''did'' say that! She ''did'' say that! That was the rule! }}

* [[Everything's Worse with Bees|Everything's Worse With Wasps]]: Averted. Fluttershy offers a wasp as a ''pet'' and it acts relatively benign.

** All of the competitor pets demonstrate a large amount of intelligence, awareness and ability, such as the falcon displaying embarrassment when it was pointed out that he didn't come back to get Dash when she was caught under the avalanche; or the montage of the pet's attempts to impress her with fencing, knitting and so forth.

* [[Gesundheit]]

'''Twilight:''' Tenacity!<br />

'''Rainbow Dash:''' Gesundheit. }}

** Rainbow Dash claiming that the contest "isn't a game, you know," and explaining immediately afterward that "these ''games'' will determine..."

** We have this bit between Fluttershy and the rest of the main cast (sans Rainbow Dash, who's on Tank's back). Keep in mind that she's been [[Insistent Terminology|correcting Rainbow Dash that Tank's a tortoise]] the entire episode every time she calls him a turtle.

'''Fluttershy:''' [[Whatever]]. }}

* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: Ghastly Gorge. Even Rainbow Dash is obviously put off by it, and she's the one trying to assure the other contenders that it's not as bad as advertised.

** [[Insistent Terminology|Tortoise.]]

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Noted in a few other tropes, but explicitly calling back to the duet…

'''Fluttershy:''' The best of the best like you wanted, remember? It can fly and it's not a squirrel! Should we sing about it again? }}

* [[Second Place Is for Winners|Last Place Is For Winners]]: {{spoiler|Even though the tortoise comes in last during the race, he still gets to be Rainbow Dash's pet for being the most loyal to her. And because of the exact rulings she placed for the race.}}

* [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]: The camera keeps focusing on the tortoise during the song [[Foreshadowing|for a reason]].

* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Rainbow Dash, several times, such as whistling along with [[Ride of the Valkyries|the background music]] as well as:

* [[Let's Duet]]: Between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

* [[Loophole Abuse]]: {{spoiler|Rainbow Dash utilizes this to name the tortoise her pet, even though the falcon crossed the finish line first.}}

** Well, there are three seal species that live in freshwater. However, they all live exclusively in one lake, lake Saimaa, lake Ladoga and lake Baikal, for the Saimaa seal, Ladoga seal and Baikal seal, respectively.

* [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]: Rainbow's opening nightmare. And hinted at during the song:

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Rainbow Dash is flying along in the race, being awesome and cocky as usual… hits the side of the gorge, pretty standard… starts an avalanche, nothing she can't handle…and then she's stuck at the bottom of the gorge with her wing pinned under a rock, crying out "Don't leave me!" to the competing pets.

* [[Musical World Hypotheses]]: The duet in this episode seems to follow the Adaptation Hypothesis. Fluttershy even makes reference to the song at the end of the episode:

* [[Mythology Gag]]: Rainbow Dash seems to be back to [http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd363/xenu_photo9/style.jpg dressing in style].

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Averted, to some degree, in the tortoise's "radical" display: The course includes a ring of fire, a guillotine and a pool of circling sharks. However, the pool appears to be a wind-up toy, based on a turning key on its side. And of course, the tortoise never gets a chance to actually run through any of the obstacles.

* [[Running Gag]]:

** During most of Rainbow's tests, she exclaims:

** Characters calling the tortoise a turtle, then being corrected.

* [[Sand Worm]]: The [[Punny Name|"Quarray eels"]].

 

----

Tenacity!<br />

[[Gesundheit]]. }}